Bulgaria Travel Guide - Everything on Travel To Bulgaria - Dining
The Bulgarian Kitchen:
Anyone who has had the opportunity to sample traditional Bulgarian cuisine will tell you that there is little to rival a salad of fresh tomatoes and home-made sheep's cheese; the delicate flavors of slow-baked stews in clay ramekins; or the many and varied non-meat dishes that are available.
Bulgarians always start the meal with a salad. The most popular, shopska salad, is made with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, fresh or baked peppers, onion and sirene (salty sheep or cow's cheese). A variation of this is the Ovcharska (Shepherd's), which has all the ingredients of the Shopska plus grated egg, mushrooms and occassionally ham. Also very popular is snezhanka (chopped cucumber with garlic in strained yogurt), russka salata (small chunks of vegetables in mayonnaise). The salad is washed down with a glass of rakia, the local spirit made of grapes or plums. A hot starter may follow.
This could be the popular chushki byurek - a pepper stuffed with cheese and herbs and fried in bread crumbs, or sirene po shopski - white cheese baked in a clay pot with an egg and a pepper on top. Roasted vegetables with a light tomato sauce are also very popular.
Summer specialties :
Tarator is a cold yogurt soup with chopped cucumber, dill and plenty of garlic. A real hot summer day's favorite.
Another popular summer dish, which can either be eaten as a starter or served as a main course itself, is podlucheni tikvichki, fried courguettes with a garlicky yogurt sauce.
If holidaying in the Black Sea you might like to try popcheta, a local fresh fish which is fried whole. Bulgarian watermelons are also extremely tasty and refreshing, and for those a little more adventurous, you can try it injected with mastika and chilled.
Bulgarian tomatoes are amongst the tastiest in the world, so don't miss a chance to have a tomato salad during the summer months!
The most popular soups which you will find on most menus include bob chorba (bean soup), pileshka supa (chicken soup) and lestha (lentil). A summer favorite is tarator (cold yogurt and cucumber soup) and an all around favorite for local tastebuds is the shkembe chorba (tripe soup), which is seasoned with garlic in vinegar and often already eaten at breakfast time.
Most main course dishes are chicken or pork based. Beef dishes are usually referred to as teleshko (veal) and can be a bit of a gamble, although the quality has much improved in the recent years especially at the restaurants at the upper end of the spectrum. Lamb is definitely a seasonal favorite. Grilled meats (naskara) are very popular and include kyufteta (spicy meat balls coated in flour), and kebapcheta (elongated meat balls), and parzhola (chops) usually served with french fries.
Guvetch and Kavama are two of stew baked in clay pots with various vegetables using different types of meat. Unfortunately, there is little fresh fish beyond pasturva (trout) and some seasonal Black Sea fish.
People also eat a lot of dried salami such as lukanka or pasturma, and these are often served sliced on plates together with other 'nibbles' like nuts and olives as accompaniment to drinks.
Bulgarian cusine, especially in restaurants, is not very strong when it comes to desserts. Most rely on palachinka (pancakes usually with honey and nuts) or sladoled (ice cream). Pastry shops (sladkarnitsa) offer a large variety of cakes and sweets including baklava (fillo pastry filled with nuts and soaked in sugar syrup), tulumbi (fried dough sticks in syrup) and Garash torta (chocolate cake).
One Bulgarian specialty everyone should try is homemade Thracian banitsa, a flaky pastry usually filled with sirene (white cheese), that is unforgettable when homemade. Served as a traditional breakfast or daytime snack, variations of the filling include spinach, or pumpkin and walnuts for sweeter option. Banitsa is usually eaten together with yoghurt (kiselo mlyako - sour milk) another staple in Bulgarian diet. Bulgarian yoghurt producers are taking steps to protect the Bulgarian yoghurt trademark in Europe and to distinguish it from other products that do not contain live bacteria.
Did you know? : Yoghurt is in fact widely claimed to have originated in Bulgaria (bacilus bulgaricus), and the local varieties are still the best in the world. Usually made from cow's milk, one can also find yoghurt from buffalo or sheep's milk. Ayran, a slightly salty watered down yoghurt is a popular year round drink.
Don't be surprised if Bulgarians eat some things that we would consider unacceptable in the western world. Lamb heads (with teeth intact!) are a delicacy, as are brains, hearts, pigs trotters and ears, and various other unmentionables. Another truly acquired taste is boza, a thick malt-based drink with a distinct smell popular with children and highly recommended to nursing mothers!
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